Why neurodiversity needed a directory

Hello, world! I'm Ronnie, and I was diagnosed with ADHD and autism at 21 years old.

In the present moment, which is where I am writing these words from, I am 24 years old and I have been 'in the workplace' for eight years. That means, logically, I went through the (UK) education system from start to finish already, which allowed me to join the adults in the real world. Now, bare with me here while I flesh this out for you a bit more.

I completed the 'early years foundation stage' aged 3-4. Moving on to complete 'Key Stage 1' aged 5-7 and 'Key Stage 2' aged 7-11. At this point, I've survived what the UK school system calls 'primary education'.

Next came 'secondary education' which involved 'Key Stage 3' while I was between 11-14 and 'Key Stage 4' from 14-16.

In the UK, staying within the education system for a further two years is mandatory so I chose an apprenticeship in marketing, where I first entered 'the workplace' eight years ago.

I continued to be 'in the workplace' for five years until I simply couldn't be anymore, at which point - thankfully - I received my diagnosis and, since then, I've been sustainably and sufficiently self-employed.

I have no doubts that I also hit the point where I couldn't be in the education system anymore, rather quickly, but there's not much that can be done about that, so I survived.

And, what?

Let me bring you back to the present moment, which is - if you remember - where I'm writing this from. The two systems I'm discussing my participation in here are the education system and the workplace system, which ALL us humans simply must take part in, along with some others.

And, they're all fucked. Sorry - broken.

I don't know actually - or care - what word is most accurate there. Whichever variable you use, it's for the same purpose: highlighting the incompatibility between man and man's systems.

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti

The good news is that, in 2025 and beyond, there's a new age dawning; and don't worry, I appreciate how new-agey (by definition) that sounds.

Well then, what's new about it?

Neurodiversity in education

In an ideal world, which is - if all us humans have our heads screwed - what we should aspire to and aim towards, every child in the education system (which IS every child) should receive a neurodiversity diagnostic screening. Neurodiversity refers to the variations we all have in terms of our individual neurocognitive ability and is a term founded on the idea that differences equals strengths, not weaknesses. An initial screening identifies whether an individual may 'have a neurodiversity' or, put another way, a Specific Learning Difference (SpLD).

The idea that this could be taking place already is not a radical one. It's also not an impossible task to integrate screening as a part of the preexisting and (obviously) outdated education system. In fact, there are organisations such as the Accessible Learning Foundation which campaigns for and provides exactly that.

If this was a thing - if 'neurodiversity in education' was a thing - when I first entered the education system at the terrifyingly ripe age of 3, the following 18 years of my life, before my diagnosis, would have (again, obviously) been different.

All that's required in order for this to be a thing is for one governmental department to allocate digits on a screen to other governmental departments: leading to (probably) tens of thousands, if not more, of new ('neurodiversity') jobs and screening-for-all.

The financial cost to the country that I'm speculating is needed here surely wouldn't make a dent. At least, nothing like the dent that screening-for-all would have.

In the 2023-2024 financial year the UK government spent ￡1.23 billion (￡1,230,000,000) on 'us' meaning: our systems. Presumably, 'us' can presume at any given moment that this same government may be wasting upwards of 20% of that spend as, that's what governments do. If you felt the need to immediately argue that point, I'd question whether you're part of said efforts to waste or benefiting from said wasted efforts.

Now, I don't know the exact prospective figures for what screening-for-all would cost, but one must presume that we'd have the resource, abilities and tenacity to put it in place. Also, I'd be more than happy to crunch those numbers and lead a task-force on it, if asked. Just ask me, Gov.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” - George Bernard Shaw

Neurodiversity in the workplace

The next system in discussion is the workplace system which I'm sure 'back in my day' (and yours) was not familiar with the idea of 'neurodiversity in the workplace'.

Yet nowadays we have companies like Lexxic leading the way when it comes to neurodiversity audits and assessments, coaching, e-learning and digital toolkits, workshops and webinars, all on behalf of organisations for their workplaces and workforces.

On top of this, it's safe to say that there's the largest number of neurodiversity consultants that there has ever been that are as willing as ever to go into organisations and teams and share their much needed wisdom.

Neurodiversity coaching

Real empowerment. There's no phrase that's better suited to neurodiversity/ADHD/ASD/AuDHD coaches than this.

If I didn't start working with a coach at the start of 2024, I wouldn't be the person that I am in this infamous present moment of which I can't stop banging on about.

More precisely, I would not be as regulated, making me less competent and capable and I would not be as responsible, making me less reliable and trustworthy. So, coaching is crucial. Being able to understand yourself and, therefore, become a better version of you - for everyone else as well as you - is crucial.

Real empowerment then, is crucial. Neurodiversity coaches, doing their job of coaching neurodivergent individuals, are crucial. The Government's Access to Work scheme that allows neurodivergent individuals to get neurodiversity coaching reimbursed must also be, by proxy, crucial.

Sensory stuffs

Did you know that in every human's brain is something called the thalamus, which is known as the sensory gatekeeper due to it's responsibility to relay sensory information across the human intelligence system?

I didn't, until recently.

Did you know that neurodivergent individuals process sensory information differently? Which leads to altered attention shifting (linked to ADHD) with sensory inputs and potentially even sensory insensitivity or the opposite - overload (linked to autism), due to this altered processing.

I didn't, until recently.

Luckily, there are companies within the neurodiversity network that knew this, still know it and are actively doing something with that knowledge: from sensory solutions to sensory toys to sensory clothes!

For example, Sensory Technology (Senteq) have been designing and installing multisensory rooms since 2004 and Thinking Toys, founded in the same year in Co. Clare, Ireland, have been making special toys for special kids now for over 20 years.

'Back in my day' (and yours) and still today, the primary way of handling a person - who may benefit from these things - would be to snap your fingers at them and ask "are you in the room?!" if they're not seeming placidly present in said room and to discipline, rebuke or ostracise those that couldn't (or wouldn't) participate in the systems they must participate in, regardless of whether their needs were being met or not.

Which unfortunately, for many (thousands of) years, fostered a type of functioning in the world that would force the individual to forget about their needs due to the superseding need (as it's enforced and reinforced by the human enforcers we became) to fit in and fit normally.

Now, the tide is turning. I can feel it. I know you can, too.

What is my concluding point?

I am not wasting my time (in the present moment) wishing that things were different for me - or others, I am spending it with direct actions that aim to ensure that things can be different for others going forward.

What that looks like, practically speaking, is me combining my skills, knowledge and resources as a marketer with a marketing company to build what I believe needed building - like the founder I am.

What I believe needed building is, essentially, a one-stop-shop or, put more jazzily, a digital town square. For, of course, neurodiversity. How that translates then, to a digital entity, is a digital directory.

Thus, The Neurodiversity Directory was born, where neurodivergent individuals can directly access the myriad solutions and support that's accessible to them in 2025 and beyond from the neurodiversity sector.

Were there any neurodiversity directories or neurodivergent practitioner directories on the web before I launched neurodiversity.directory? Yes, a few, but they were either not free (thus, not accessible) or weren't very good. So, here we go.